This was published 7 years ago
Final Fantasy XV review: fantastical road trip a return to form
By Tim Biggs
Maybe it's because the past seven years have trained me to have very low expectations for a series that was previously a big part of my gaming life, but I was incredibly and pleasantly surprised by how good Final Fantasy XV is.
While on the surface it's a road trip story about a group of improbably beautiful young men avoiding a war, Final Fantasy XV is essentially a very modern interpretation of the series' earliest games: four warriors freely exploring dangerous wilderness, discovering exciting towns, outfitting themselves with weapons, gear and magic to take on frightening monsters and embarking on a quest to avert apocalypse.
A beautiful open world, savage monsters and great company.
Prince Noctis is leaving the protection of his home city for the first time in order to complete a marriage his father hopes will prevent a coming war.
Joined by three childhood friends, he sets out in his car (the Regalia) toward what might be described as a road trip / bachelor party / incredibly dangerous journey.
A lot has changed, but Final Fantasy staples like chocobos, summons and crystals still play very important roles.
As the game opens the four leading men — who incidentally wear "uniforms" that make them look like they've just stepped off a Tokyo catwalk — are pushing their fancy out-of-fuel car down the road and engaging in playful anime-style banter while a bizarrely great cover of "Stand by Me" plays in the background, in a magnificent sequence that sets the tone for the entire game.
Avoiding both the arduous grind of older games and the painful complications of 2009's XIII, this game's greatest victory is that it finds a way to take the themes of old — the RPG battles, the camaraderie, the exploration — and express them in a way that's fun, fresh and recognisable as a mainstream 2016 game.
XV feels like a logical evolution for series fans, but it isn't militantly inaccessible for newcomers.
The theme of the four friends off in a world they've never seen before carries through the entire game, with all the systems neatly connected together.
Combat is fun and active, but takes some getting used to.
For example Ignus is a passionate cook, which not only affects the conversations the characters have (and the banter, while constant, is consistently good), but it also offers incentive to go off the beaten path and find rare ingredients to add to your inventory.
When you stop to camp at night your items will determine what dishes Ignus can cook, with each giving different bonuses to the party for the next day (important if you're planning to go into a big battle).
If you somehow don't have 20+ missions on your to-do list at some point in the game, you can kick back with an actual playable pinball machine at certain diners.
Why are you stopping to camp? Well, because it's the only time your characters can level up and becoming stronger depending on all the experience they'd gained since their last camp. Oh, and because terrifying demons roam the land at night.
Every aspect of the game — including the simplified magic system, the way travelling relies on your car, the main story that has you recovering relics and earning the favour of the gods, even the techno-fantasy-meets-rural-america vibe of the towns — works to support the feeling of an epic journey with your best friends.
Towns are bustling and full of places to get new quests, food and items.
This is a game where one of your party members snaps photos constantly, even while he's firing guns at enemies that can certainly kill him, for the sole purpose of looking at the photos over dinner later that night.
As brilliant and endearing as this humungous game is, its biggest weakness is probably that it doesn't care to explain all its many intersecting systems and aspects to you as well as it should.
The Regalia isn't the most fun vehicle to drive as you can only go along roads and at a set pace. For longer trips you can let someone else drive and listen to some tunes, or do some shopping.
Combat is a good example of this. A modern, MMO-inspired system where you target enemies and hold about to automatically attack, it can be very satisfying once you've got your head around it but for me that didn't happen until many hours into the story.
Every element of the system — dodging, warping, switching weapons on the fly, determining enemy weaknesses, mixing magic from energy you pull from the earth, commanding allies to use their special abilities, using items to keep from dying — is there from the get go and is pretty overwhelming.
Features are thrown at you — like powerful weapons that sap your strength, the ability to learn new skills, the option to pause the action when you're standing skill — but you're more or less on your own when it comes to working out how to use each one.
In a game that I'll easily sink a hundred hours into it's probably not going to be a huge deal in the end, but the first dozen hours in Final Fantasy XV is partly refreshing in its focus and partly a disorienting blur. Also for the love of Ramuh remember to save your game constantly.
This is one of my favourite games of the year and it's one I'd encourage any previous Final Fantasy fan to consider. Besides the brilliant nods to the series past — adorable retro touches like pixel art character menus and classic game soundtracks you can buy in servos and listen to in the Regalia — this is a game that's doing something new and great with what's come before. It's the fondest I've felt about the series since VIII.
For everyone else, this is a weird, wonderful and very Japanese epic about friendship and fighting. It requires an investment of time and learning, but what you get back is one of the warmest and most unique role-playing experiences of the generation so far.
Final Fantasy XV is out now for PlayStation 4 (reviewed) and Xbox One.